I haven't been on these threads for a few months, now, but I'm back not because of nostalgia, but there is a bit of a heated arguement on the Combat Command forums about disengaging from E-ZoC.

Myself, I first cut my teeth on Panzer General like many, and it wasn't until TOAW where I first had to pay attention when disengaging from enemy zones of control, unless I wanted to get those nasty bombards and watch my units fraction off into tiny bits (or worse).

However, in Combat Command trying to withdraw in a situation like this seems to be more penalizing than in TOAW, and this seems to really frustrate some players who seem to want to continually do this. I know there are some real army vets who are in here time to time, and I'm wondering, do you feel in TOAW that disengaging from the enemy is pretty much spot-on, or has been dubbed down an aweful lot in order to keep playability from degenerating into more of a WWI type theme?

I also read a complaint from a player that Tanks should never be allowed to get trapped in E-Zoc, and should always be able to pass a withdrawal check. Do you agree?

I'll just point out that the cost of exiting a enemy ZOC can now (as of 3.4) be varied by the designer via a game parameter. And that parameter can be varied by event.

This doesn't change chances of disengagement attacks, however. But those have always depended upon a suite of factors like the relative speed and sizes of the adjacent forces, as well as recon of the moving unit. So, a tank unit, being motorized and powerful, may tend to disengage better than, say, a foot unit. Even if it does suffer a disengagement attack, it is relatively immune to artillery, so will fare better even then. But, if it is trying to disengage from a more powerful enemy tank force, it will have trouble - and should.

It would appear then, that the presence of enemy AT units should also restrict the armour from retreating though not on the same percentage level as enemy tanks. I'm now wondering what a ballpark figure for that comparison could be, but so many other variables which could come into play..